Justice and the human genome project

This book is a collection of nine essays originally presented at a conference entitled {open_quotes}Justice and the Human Genome{close_quotes} held in Chicago in late 1991. The goal of the articles in this collection is to explore questions of justice raised by developments in genomic research and by applications of genetic knowledge and technology. The Human Genome Project (HGP) is used as a starting point for exploring these questions, but, as Marc Lappe recognizes, the database generated by HGP research will have implications far beyond the medical applications frequently used to justify this research effort. Thus, the book`s contributors consider questions of justice in relation to screening and testing for various predispositions, conditions, and diseases and gene therapy but also examine testing for other characteristics, forensic uses of genetic information, issues associated with DNA banks, and (hypothetical) genetic enhancement possibilities.